Alina Patersson
Alina Patersson (born January 25, 1985) is a professional tennis player from Sweden. Early Life Born in Stockholm, Sweden as the only child of Ukrainian immigrants Petr and Valeria Volk, Patersson was introduced to tennis at the age of 4 by her mother, who had been a successful junior player before opting to go to university in instead of pursuing a professional career. Patersson was the top ranked player in Sweden in the U-18 category in 2001 and was considering turning professional when, at the age of 17, she was offered an athletic scholarship by Stanford University in the United States, one of the top universities in the country. She ultimately chose to pursue her higher education and play collegiate tennis instead of becoming a touring professional. At Stanford, Patersson saw a great deal of success, not only graduating with an Honours degree in Psychology but also winning 2 consecutive NCAA team championships and ranking as the top collegiate female player in 2005. Tennis Career 'Debut' Season: 2006 Patersson began her professional tennis career in 2006, at the age of 21. In her first two tournaments, at the Medibank International in Sydney and the Australian Open, she lost in three sets in qualifying. The next week she reached the quarterfinals at a challenger event in Oberhaching, losing to Casanova. At the Tokyo Pan Pacific Open, Patersson beat former top 10 player, Bryanne Applegate and Serena Williams to qualify for her first Tour main draw. However, she fell in the first round to top 30 player, Akemi Matsuda. Her best result till that point came at the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, where Patersson came through pre-qualifying, beating Aylina Khravska and top 30 player Anabel Conde-Martinez en route to the second round, where she squandered match points against top 10 player, Regla Torres, before falling 76(2), 57, 75. Patersson backed up this result by reaching the semifinals of the ITF Challenger in Orange, California where she lost to the 5th seed, Jennifer Casanova. At this time, Patersson also began finding success in doubles, reaching the quaterfinals at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami, Florida partnering with Daniela Lieb. The good results kept on coming, as she reached the quarterfinals at a challenger event in Pelham, and once again qualified for the main draw at the Tier II event in Warsaw, Poland, beating Top 25 player Emily Simonsen-Harris on her way to the second round where she was beaten by Top 10 player, Larissa Ovechkina in straight sets. At the same tournaments, in doubles, once again partnering with Lieb, Patersson reached the semifinals. After this, Patersson lost 5 consecutive matches before breaking through at the second Grand Slam of the year: Wimbledon. At Wimbledon, Patersson won her first match against local qualifier, Samantha Dorrofield in three sets, setting up a meeting with the 12th seed, Larissa Ovechkina. In what many thought would be a routine victory for the Belarussian, Patersson surprised, winning the first set and recovering from a dreadful second set to take the match, 63,06,63. In the third round, Patersson was knocked out by German Brooke Allemang, with whom she shared some harsh words after the match. Following her good showing at Wimbledon, Patersson participated in Sweden's Fed Cup tie against France, for a place in the World Group. High on confidence, Patersson was the star of the tie, winning both matches against Tatiana Vieu and Tami Sugarn-Chappuis to steer her side towards the World Group. Her string of good results continued in a big way at her next tournament, the Western and Southern Financial Group Open in Cincinnati, Ohio. After losing in the final round of qualifying in three sets to Kathleen Pryde, Patersson entered the main draw as a lucky loser. She took full advantage of her opportunity, beating 4th seed Regla Torres, former US Open champion, Ruflina Taliamanosoko and top seed, Eva Sorrenta, all in three sets, en route to the final, where she picked up her first title against 6th seed, Lindsay-Anne Sarile, coming back from a 60, 40 deficit. At the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, Patersson extended her win-streak by beating Estefania Coli and 9th seeded Samantha Soren before falling to Australian Open champion Elise Mesane. Patersson also reached the doubles semifinals, partnering with Tatiana Vieu of France. Despite losing her first match in her next two tournaments and losing in only the quarterfinals at the Bronx challenger, Patersson was tipped as a dark horse for the US Open. This prediction did not come true, as Patersson crashed out in the first round to newcomer Petra Korbanova, despite having been a break up in the second and holding three match points in the third set. However, she turned her luck around at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open, reaching the semifinals before losing in straight sets to top seeded Candela Sanchez. Patersson subsequently lost in the first round of 4 tournaments, and in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Japan Open. She did manage, however, to reach the semifinals of the the ITF challenger in Houston, Texas, losing to Anjelica De La Courtiere and picked up her first ITF title in Pretoria, South Africa. Patersson ended the season ranked no. 36 with a 39-32 win-loss record. '2007-2008: Pregnancy and Return' 2007 was a short season for Patersson, as she won just 6 matches in 10 tournaments. She began her year with a loss at Gold Coast to Barbora Murakova, who had beaten her at the Kremlin Cup the year before. However, in her next tournament at Hobart, she avenged her loss, beating Murakova 75,36,64 before being upset by the unheralded Nadira Haj Imani in the quarterfinals in three sets. After suffering a tight loss to Candela Sanchez 61,16,86 loss to Candela Sanchez in the second round of the Australian Open, Patersson withdrew from the Tokyo Pan Pacific Open and announced that she was four months pregnant with her first child with her husband Jeremy Christenssen, whom she had married the previous year. She was out of competition until June, when she announced that her baby had been born and that she was returning to the tour the week before Wimbledon. In her first tournament back, she fell to World No. 1, Eva Sorrenta after qualifying for the main draw. At Eastbourne, she lost to top seeded Elise Mesane in her opening match. At Wimbledon, where she had reached the third round the year before, she beat Tami Sugarn-Chappuis in a three set thriller ending 97 in the third set, before falling to 11th seeded Neve Wunch, 46,64,10-8 in the second round. In Mixed Doubles, she reached the quarterfinals with her husband, Jeremy Christenssen. Following Wimbledon, Patersson failed to defend her Cincinnati title, falling in the first round to Nadia Banaszek, and lost in the first round of Los Angeles to Anjelica De La Courtiere. She did play for the rest of the year, and her ranking dropped to 71st in the world, from a high of 32 in February 2007. Patersson returned in 2008, reaching the quarterfinals of her first tournament back at Auckland and qualifying for the main draw of Hobart before falling to Larissa Ovechkina and Anna Wilson, respectively. Patersson also reached her first doubles final in Hobart. Partnering Cristina Vincoio, she lost to former doubles partner Daniela Lieb in straight sets. Patersson proceeded to lose in the second round of the Australian Open to Selima Beckford-Valentine. Patersson then qualified for the main draw of the Pattaya Women's Open, once again beating Samantha Soren before falling to Ovechkina for the second time that year. At Bogota, Patersson succumbed to top seed Regla Torres in three tight sets in the first round, after holding 2 match points at 5-4 in the third set. The next week, Patersson once again lost to Torres, this time in the quarterfinals. Patersson lost her next three matches at Bangalore, Indian Wells and Miami. She did not play during the clay season, citing a knee injury. Returning at Birmingham, in time for the grass season, Patersson reached the quarterfinals, beating top seeded Sorrenta before falling to Taliamanosoko in straight sets. The next week in Eastbourne, Patersson reached the second round and held 5 match points against Sabine Graf before losing, 16,76(11),61. At Wimbledon, Patersson beat Gisele Noventz and upset 4th-seeded Lindsay-Anne Sarile to reach the third round for the second time, before getting stopped by 16th-seeded Hanne Nielsen. Patersson then reached the quarterfinals of Palermo, qualified for but lost in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic, and reached the semifinals of the Portoroz Open, beating 2nd-seeded Gianna Dulko before losing to Saba Abid 76(5) in the final set. She followed this up with a trip to the semifinals of her home tournament, the Nordea Open in Stockholm, where she lost to eventual champion Taylor Montgomery, 76(4) in the final set. At the Beijing Olympics, Alina faced Lindsay-Anne Sarile in the second round whom she had beaten at Wimbledon, but could not repeat the upset, falling in straight sets. Patersson followed this loss with losses in Cincinnati, Forest Hills, the US Open, Tokyo, Seoul and Moscow before reaching the final at the Luxembourg Open, beating Elise Mesane and Paula Masterton before falling to 3rd-seeded Samantha Soren in three sets in the final. Patersson ended the year with a loss in the qualifying round of Quebec City. Her win/loss record at the end of 2008 was 22-28, and she ended the year ranked as the no. 36. '2009: Consolidation' 2009 started off as a rough year for Patersson, as she lost five of her first six matches. Then, in March, she managed to reach the semifinals of Monterrey, beating Jennifer Casanova and Silvana Fabiani en route, before falling to the unheralded Esmee Burggraaff. Patersson had decent results for the rest of the clay season, losing in the opening round at four tournaments including Roland Garros, but reaching the quarterfinals of Barcelona and Madrid as well as the semifinals of Strasbourg, recording wins over Sylvie Bailly, Verena Starr and Elise Mesane amongst others. At Wimbledon, Patersson reached the third round for the second consecutive year and for the third time overall, beating former champion Isis Smith and fifth-seeded Ziyi Zianzhi before falling to eventual champion Saba Abid, having held a match point in the second set. After Wimbledon, Patersson played Palermo where she was the 8th seed. She beat Yelena Pirilenko, Silvana Fabiani and Nadia Banaszek on her way to the final, where she took out Larissa Ovechkina to win her second career tour-level title. The next week in Portoroz, she continued her good form by reaching the semifinals, beating Sylvie Bailly, Elise Mesane and Paula Masterton before losing to Athea Kane in three sets. Apart from Cincinnati, where she qualified and lost in the first round to Regal Torres, Patersson did not win a single match until Luxembourg, where she qualified and reached the quarterfinals, losing to Saba Abid. Her next tournament was the Bali Tournament of Champions, for which she qualified by virtue of her title at Palermo. She went 1-1 in her group, beating Phoebe Buffay but losing to Anastasia Nemayeva and finished second in her group. Patersson ended her season with a run to the semifinals of the ITF Minsk, losing to Lindsay Raymond. She ended the year once again in the top 40, with a win/loss record of 27-31. '2010-2011: Injuries and inactivity' After losing her first three matches of the year, Patersson did not play until June, when she lost her opener at Eastbourne followed by a second round loss at Wimbledon to Rachel-Anne Canterbury. Patersson followed this up with a challenger victory at Grapevine and a quarterfinal run at Palermo, beating Regla Torres before falling to Bianka Harlow. After losing in the first round of the Wrexham Challenger, Patersson collected her second challenger title of the year at Almaty. She followed this up with a run to the semi-finals of Copenhagen. She qualified for the main draw of Cincinnati, but failed to do so at Montreal and New Haven. However, she managed to reach the third round of the US Open for the very first time, beating Bianka Harlow and 15th-seeded Martina Kartincova before falling to Giuseppina Benedetti. Patersson then reached the quarterfinals of Seoul, the second round of Tokyo, Beijing and Linz and ended the season with a first round loss in Luxembourg. Patersson ended the year with a positive win loss record of 20-18, just outside the top 40. Patersson began 2011 with a first round loss in Auckland, a quarterfinal run in Hobart and another first round loss at the Australian Open. Following this, she lost in the opening rounds of Pattaya, Memphis, Portimao and Monterrey. She returned to the tour in August, reaching the quarterfinals of ITF Taipei, and winning ITF St. Petersburg. Winning just three matches after this point, Patersson ended the year with an 8-14 win-loss record and ranking of 66. 2012: Grand Slam success and Top 10 ranking After a woeful 2011, Patersson hired a new coach, Ricardo Sanchez, and proclaimed at the onset of the season that she was ready to finally make good on her early promise. Despite this, she found little success early on in the season winning just five matches from January to early March. The Premier Mandatory tournament in Miami, however, saw a reversal of fortune for the Swede. She took out Indian Wells champion Berenika Wojnarowska in straight sets in the first round and followed that up with three-set victories over 14th seed Siri Cornetsson and 3rd seed Chantal Chan, setting up a quarterfinal clash with another player on the comeback trail in Regla Torres. She defeated Torres in straight sets, and got past Susan Day in the semifinals to reach the first Premier final of her career. Facing a fellow non-seed, newcomer Yoona Im, Patersson came from behind in a thrilling 3-6,6-4,7-5 encounter to win her first Premier title and her first tour-level title of any kind since Palermo in 2009. Patersson followed this up with a six match losing streak which she finally broke by winning her first round match in Strasbourg over Yanet Mori-Tu, only to lose to American Harper Johnson in the second round. Despite not having played Roland Garros since 2009, the Swede demolished junior Ghaya Djerba in under an hour before losing a marathon three-setter to young Australian Emma Anderson in the second round, squandering three match points in the process. After this, Patersson returned to the challenger tour and won the Nottingham title beating top-seeded Mbangu-Zeric en route. While this was a good result, it was not the kind of success many had predicted for the Swede following her Miami triumph and things did not improve with first round losses in Birmingham and Den Bosch. Wimbledon, the site of her best Grand Slam performances, saw Patersson notch wins over Susan Day and Jennifer Casanova en route to her fourth 3rd round appearance at Wimbledon. Facing Chantal Chan, the Swede knocked out the No. 3 seed in a 3 hour battle, ending 10-8 in the third set. This marked the first time in her seven years on tour that Patersson had reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. She beat former World No. 1 Athea Kane and fellow semifinal debutante Stefania di Francesca-Beck in the next two rounds to reach her first Grand Slam final. Here she would face 4th-seeded Australian Open champion Fleri Hingisafrilia, and lost 3-6,7-5,7-5 after two and a half hours of play, in a match which saw her hold leads of 4-1 and 4-2 in the last two sets, respectively. Patersson parlayed her Wimbledon success into a successful hardcourt season. Despite losing her opening rounds at Stanford and Carlsbad, she reached the final of Washington (losing to Emma Anderson) and winning the Premier event in Montreal, beating world no. 2 Chantal Chan in the final, for the third time that year. At the US Open, Patersson was drawn against Harper Johnson, whom she had beaten in the Rogers Cup semifinals a few weeks prior. She upset the American once again, in three sets, and gained revenge over Anderson in the next round to reach the third round in New York for the second time in her career. She then reached her second ''Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating 8th-seeded Ziyi Zianzhi in the last Grand Slam match of her career, in straight sets. She followed this up with her fourth successive victory over Chantal Chan, and another win over Mbangu-Zeric, both in straight sets, to set up a final with defending US Open champion, Ella Felivitch. For the second time, Patersson lost after being a set and a break up, going down 2-6,7-6(4),6-2 to the Czech. Despite her loss in the singles final, Patersson regrouped to take the mixed doubles trophy the next day with husband Jeremy Christenssen, marking her second Mixed Doubles Grand Slam, following her victory at the US Open in 2008. Patersson's next tournament was in Beijing, where she reached the quarterfinals by beating Wojnarowska and Kartincova, before falling to Mbangu-Zeric in three sets, having held two match points in the second set tie-break. During the match against Mbangu-Zeric, she picked up a knee injury, which plagued her for the rest of the season, and caused her to play only three more matches, and withdraw from the Season-Ending Championships which she was eligible to play for the first time in her career. Patersson ended the season with two titles, and a career-high rank of #3. FWTT Career Finals '''Singles: 17 (11 Titles, 6 Runners-up)' Singles Performance timeline Category:Players Category:Swedish Players Category:Current Players Category:Grand Slam Winners